Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

We have just watched the You Tube Video from the gardening link on MSE and it is very impressive, He Who Knows is going to play this summer and I am going to grow vertical herbs, this is so useful and if we do get drought conditions again (I rule no possibility out these days when it comes to the weather) will be such a water conservation help, it is just brilliant!!! Well found and thanks so much for sharing, Cheers Lyn xxx.

I have just been pootling round t'internet and found a book called 'Growing Perennial Garden Vegetables' by Martin Crawford which has more than 100 varieties of edibles in it. They are on E*ay and A*azon at varying prices. Might be worth checking out the library first if of any interest to you, Lyn x.

ALIBOBSY

Not a good week really, enjoyed crimbo with the kids and we all seemed to have recovered from the pre christmas illnesses. Then we got a call to say OH's brother had been rushed to hospital as he had collasped. SIL hadn't bothered to let anyone know when it happened on Monday and MIL was upset she hadn't even known her son might be dying :mad:.

MIL and FIL went to see him straight away and OH went with them yesterday night-FIL is ex paramedic so knows the score and had a word with a doctor and a nurse whilst there. Turns out he is a chronic alcoholic and is in a bad way. I mean we knew he was a heavy drinker, and if fact he had withdrawn from alot of the family in recent years because he said ev1 was against him and was "nagging". MIL was shocked to find he has admitted to drinking heavily since age 15! All the times he said he had stopped drinking and was on a health kick turn out to have been rubbish. We all thought he liked a pint, but didn't know he was throwing back the vodka on the quiet out of the way.

FIL and OH have both had issues with their gall bladders and digestion and its been confirmed its inherited and thats why they have high cholesterol and are both on statins, but BIL appears to have the same tendencies and the alcohol on the top means his system is really shot, his pancreas is struggling as is his liver and he is only in his 40's. He is very swollen all over-they reckon this is fluid from the liver issues and he has been seeing things and they had to sedate him as he was aggressive and kept ripping out the drips. OH says he looked awful and was slurring his words and very confused, but seemed to recognise him. He is shaking alot and getting the withdrawel symtoms, but the big issue is can he get through coming off the stuff without any organs failing and then can he stay off as the Dr says even one more drink could easily kill him.

SIL says she had no idea????

My OH was a bit in shock, he used to like a drink, but never to that point and since he started having gallbladder problems he had stopped drinking altogether. He now looks at his brother and says what if I had gone that route. As well as hoping his brother gets through this and can sort out his life. Families eh!

2T-Greece sounds worse and worse so chin up hun.

Ev1 else-loving the GYO ideas, kids go through alot of pop bottles and we also have some value water in bottles as well. Have used them as cloches before and the bottoms as plant pots, but that idea of self watering pots looks fab. Got loads of seed-freebies/reduced/free with mags left from previous years so may try some herbs and perhaps start some early toms/peppers. I wonder if garden pearl toms would do well as they are a smallish bush type anyway......
I had heard about real seeds, but never really used them or taken a good look.
Thinking of ideas for plants that look like garden plants, but produce something edible as well for the front garden borders,Amaranths looks quite interesting.

Our house is sort of SE/NW in direction, but the whole of the right side of the house is open to the sun all day and not overlooked so we get alot of sun-plus wind and rain lol. There is a spot where the front of the house is in a sort of l-shape from the lounge to the porch and is S ish facing so gets very hot. We have put some pots around there in the past, but I reckon we haven't made the best of it and like the idea of vertical growing as well as plenty more pots.

Have a good weekend.

Ali x

ginnyknit

Alibobsy, sounds like you and yours are having a tough time. Hope things improve x

Love the vertical gardening, it will mean stuff isnt sitting in a puddle here, I think you could grow quite a lot of small plants in it. Spring onions, baby leeks and samll lettuce would do well. Also strawberries then the runners could be potted into another tower when they appear. I really like it especially as OH and DGS drink lots of juice so I have no shortage of plastic bottle all the same size.

Confuzzled

the_cake wrote: »

Re growing veg in "challenging" (!!) conditions - I have had great success and lovely tasting veg from the Real Seed Company in Wales ... will attempt a linky: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/about.html
Hurray, seems to have worked. They are a very interesting company, and all their info. is relevant and very helpful. Cannot recommend them highly enough.

actually a thought occurred to me about Mar's situation, well two actually

firstly if you have a greenhouse you could try the tyre thing inside the green house, that may give you the extra heat and wind protection you'd need

secondly some seed companies sell seeds bred for dire circumstance, including corn and tomatoes that can supposedly be grown in places like alaska and northern canada.

alas i'm sure these are hyrbid seeds so saving seed from them may not get you your next years crop with the same characteristics but if it's for growing NOW to preserve for later then it may be an idea.

Confuzzled

GreyQueen wrote: »

Squirrel apparently tastes like chicken. There seems to be a natural law that unconventional meats have to taste like chicken and unconventional greens have to taste like spinach.

Oooh, just has a thought; let a packet of rainbow chard set seed in your garden and enjoy self-sown chard forever after. I give a lot of it away but I'm running outta chardtastic friends. Never happens when your strawberries glut, funnily enough.

squirrel is quite tasty and you're right it is quite like chicken only a bit gamey as you might expect

since you HAVE to put down any grey squirrels you catch if you were to oh i don't know maybe sorta accidentally construct some sort of snare in your garden and one just happened to accidentally find it you would of course being doing your civic duty to dispatch it (wouldn't do this if you have red squirrels nearby though!)

and GQ i agree there does seem to be a 'green' taste very similar to spinach

Confuzzled

bluebag wrote: »

Mar, I'd be prepared to bet real money that you can grow kale effortlessly!:)

you can send it to me Mar i love kale

cook some bacon til it's almost done, toss in bits of kale and coat it with the bacon fat, cook til just wilted and soft

sprinkle a bit of dried 'italian hard cheese' from those cannisters i think it's peccorino cheese... anyway it's very very tasty like that


also good in soups either alongside or replacing cabbage

chop finely and add to spag bog, or ravioli anything along those lines

mmmmm kale


now if only i could start eating porridge oats again, i love it but the last two years it gives me such unbearably painful heartburn i've had to cut it out of my diet completely, not even rennies or gaviscon can rid me of the heartburn it gives me.

i must be the only scottish prepper that only has 2kg of oats, for my daughter lol if we could both eat it i'd have 10kg on standby at the least!

katieclampet

After reading all the above about GYO i have decided to give it ago. I have a tiny back garden and think I might see if I can grow a few things in tubs. I have no expeeince of growing anything, but I reckon with a bit of research I will find something that is easy to grow and that I will use.

Also going to stock up on a few more bits for my store cupboard. Did have a sort out a little while ago, and used up some stuff that was getting close to use by date. But since it looks like food prices are going up yet again, it will be spend a bit now to save later.

katie

ALIBOBSY

Been looking at those bottle towers and the you tube videos. Looks pretty good. The second video was the year following and they left the soil in situ- plus all the roots from the plants to rot down, and grew again. Supposedly was a good as the previous years yield.

So its not like you would need to rebuild every single year if you didn't want to.

You might get even more years if you then add liquid feed-HM comfrey or nettle "tea" is usually good to the water. It would also help in years like last year as you could cover the top bottle to limit the water going on the plants whilst the plastic should maximise and heat/sun onto the plants/roots. Think I saw something simular with milk bottle years ago-but not stacked as high I don't think.
Plus things are harder for slugs and birds to get your stuff.

Also didn't someone go on dragons den with an expensive version of this-like black plastic drainpipe with holes for planting? This looks a cheaper, easier version. Plus when the bottles go after a couple of years you could take out the soil and throw on the compost/beds and recycle the bottle in the usual bin.

I have squash bottles, milk bottles (plastic 4 pinters) and pop/water 2l litre types. Will start saving them in the GH alongside the collection of DS's old pot noodle tubs (even after a lovely full HM tea he will have one of these with half a loaf of toast for "supper"-teen boys eh lol), old yog pots and toilet roll inards.

The only thing I did think (and this might be cos I am a woman) is why didn't they take the labels off the bottles first? I think a tower of clear bottles planted up would look quite good. I am thinking strawberries, lettuce, herbs for starters.
I even wondered about having your planting "slots" in different positions around the bottles-some at the front as in that you tube vid and some at the sides. I wonder if you could get away with a tom plant at the side of the top bottle and allow it to grow all the way down to the floor (like those vertical tom planters) with other stuff at the front and far side to spread the growth out.

Obviously certain plants don't like to grow together, but otherwise sounds ok.

Ali x

[Deleted User]

our lights are quite dull tonight. Anyone else? I am thinking that the local power co is hanging onto reserves due to the massive oncoming prolonged cold spell. Four sets of light all the same and not brightened up in an hour

re tyres and planters, there was a craze at one time for making planters from tyres turned inside out and
http://www.wuvie.net/tireplanter.htm

looks very nice
http://www.growsonyou.com/gardengirl_/blog/22178-tyre-planters

coloured, stacked ones look brilliant
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gardenersworld.com/uploads/images/original/15485.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/garden-design/car-tire-planters/44901.html&h=373&w=500&sz=78&tbnid=-2PnnjVdZuxOTM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=123&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dusing%2Btyres%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bgarden%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=using+tyres+in+the+garden&usg=__T93lsiY7fe7Y9xysKQDM4OEDeRg=&docid=HBFdF9ZD_Zpr3M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=t2PoUKajOLHs0gXcyIHoAw&ved=0CGkQ9QEwCQ&dur=428

sb44

QUOTE=katieclampet;58380587]After reading all the above about GYO i have decided to give it ago. I have a tiny back garden and think I might see if I can grow a few things in tubs.[/QUOTE]

Google ' Square Foot Gardening ' for some ideas on planting in a 12" area.

You can buy square planters in Poundland, I think they may be 12" (foot) ones which would be ideal.